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Tampa Bay Championship interview: Kevin Streelman

KEVIN STREELMAN: You know I did some good work with my coach earlier this week. Actually hit it great in Puerto Rico last week and putted poorly. Kind of found some things out in my putting this week, and yeah, today was a great round, so to go bogey free in these conditions, in this firm and deep rough, it's a good test.

Q. When you talk about going bogey free, you're putting great today, just 25 putts needed. How is this course different than what we've seen the first two days?

KEVIN STREELMAN: Just getting firmer and faster. The wind is drying out the course. We had a lot of rain early in the week and it's making it fun.

The wind is a little different than what we were told on the first tee. It was supposed to be south all day is what the weatherman said, but turned west all day and a little gust of south and north; it makes this course very difficult if you don't know where that wind is.

Q. Tied for third, your best finish on TOUR, what experience do you lean on as you look for that win tomorrow?

KEVIN STREELMAN: This is my sixth year out here, so I've been in a lot of hairy situations. I believe in the work I've done and getting more comfortable each year out here. Done a lot of practicing and hung around the right people. Either way, whatever happens, will happen and I'll do my best.

Q. Do you play differently or try to be more aggressive?

KEVIN STREELMAN: I wanted to get to 6 under today. I had that number in my mind to at least have a chance going into tomorrow so I was happy to get there. The wind out here can wreak havoc on us. It's turned quite a bit and glad I'm done. Tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful, as well.
It's a fairways/greens type golf course. I got a Top 10 here last year, know where you can attack and where you can't attack. I'm going to stay aggressive. If you start playing to make pars, you're not going to win a golf tournament. I've done that before where I've had a two shot lead a few years ago going into the final round and played to not lose it, and ended up losing it.

So either way, I'm going to stick to what I've been doing and go at pins you should go at and not go at pins you shouldn't go at and try to keep the putter hot.

Q. Is it tough to stay aggressive on this course, thinking about some of those hairy situations you mentioned?

KEVIN STREELMAN: Yeah, it just depends on the club you get, the number you get, your confidence, where that wind is. Middle of the green, pin high to these pins is never a bad place to be. You never have more than 15 feet kind of going uphill. So trying to just kind of play smart when you need to and kind of take your medicine out here sometimes, as well.

Q. When you plan around for one wind direction and it doesn't happen, are you kind of flying by the seat of your pants the rest of the way?

KEVIN STREELMAN: You really are because you're expecting it to go back to what they prescribed it to be. Like I said, the weatherman said south, the news anchor said south and the first tee it said south, it was supposed to be south today and get out there, our eighth hole and we are just, this isn't south, it was out of the west all day.

You're hoping to trust west, but like I said, you keep thinking it might switch back. It does make it more difficult because that's a rarity. They usually have it so accurate; at certain hours it switches and they nail it most of the time.

Q. In that situation, do you go through a bunch of holes, saying, okay, you're going to switch this one, this one, this one?

KEVIN STREELMAN: Exactly. That's kind of what goes through your mind. It makes it tricky.

Q. 6 under par, a couple good final two holes there?

KEVIN STREELMAN: Yeah, the wind was completely different from what they told us on the first tee. Usually they are pretty accurate on what it's going to be, it was supposed to be south all day and it pretty much turned west and had a gust of north there. So that makes it really difficult because you're planning on playing the course accordingly. It's one of those days, I played smart and made putts when I needed to.

I wanted to get to 6 under. I thought that was a good number to at least give me a shot for tomorrow. I doubt I'll be in the lead tomorrow, but I'll be close enough to have a chance. Get some good rest and see what happens.

Q. Players talk about momentum; how hard is it to keep momentum going in a positive direction on this golf course?

KEVIN STREELMAN: On this course, it's very difficult. The greens and some of these pins, you get above them right now, a couple downwind ones, you can't stop them. The greens are beautiful, very fast and you have to stay patient, because you can hit some really good shots and not necessarily have tap in birdies.

Q. You missed the green just right on 18, only 18 feet from the hole and you took a swing like you were going to hit it about a hundred yards. How hard is it to pull that shot off?

KEVIN STREELMAN: That's one of those shots I'll sit on the chipping green and do it nine times out of ten. I said, it really was my only option, because if I try and get delicate with it, there's too much rough and it's going to grab my club and dump it over and I probably won't even get out of the rough. You have to stay really aggressive with that, play it like a flop bunker shot and let the bounce take care of the rest.